The German financial system is characterized by lower degrees of penetration by foreign commercial banks and of (bank) disintermedation than, for instance, that of the United States. These differences between the two countries could be attributed to the fact that universal banking in Germany...

The paper investigates by means of cointegration analysis whether the recently observed low levels of private saving and the current account balance in the United States are worrisome in the sense that they cannot be sufficiently explained by determinants which performed well in the past. Stock...

This paper offers a quantitative description of European private equity markets and compares the recent development in these markets with the development of the US venture capital market. Moreover, the paper addresses the differences between private equity investors acting in a single national...

A contingent claims valuation model which allows to highlight the implications of program trading in spot markets for the pricing of European-style foreign currency options and for the volatility strike structure implicit in these contracts is devoloped. The curvature of the volatility strike...

The effectiveness of the foreign exchange market interventions conducted by the Deutsche Bundesbank during the Louvre period to alter either the level or the volatility of the $/DM spot rate is examined. Volatility quotes implicit in foreign currency options are employed to recover the impact of...

The growth rate of total factor productivity seems to have increased recently, at least in the United States. Higher US productivity growth may justify higher stock market valuations than in the past and thus herald an emerging New Economy. However, the size of the estimated growth rate of total...

Die internationale Diskussion der letzten Jahrzehnte hat zur Frage nach einer effizienten Gestaltung der Einkommenssicherung von Arbeitslosen eine Reihe von Vorschlägen hervorgebracht, wie die von Beenstock/Brasse, Feldstein /Altman, Grubel und Orzag/Snower. Sie werden dargestellt und bewertet....

Internationale Direktinvestitionen, die als entscheidender Motor der Globalisie­rung gelten, werden mehr und mehr durch Fusionsaktivitäten dominiert. Seit Mitte der neunziger Jahre ist eine ausgeprägte Welle von Direktinvestitionen und eine entsprechende Welle grenzüberschreitender Fusionen...

The urban development of the twentieth century can be characterized by rise of the metropolitanization process. However, especially since 1950, it has been producing a real change of scale in this growth: the infinite growth of metropolitan peripheries, encouraged by the process of urban sprawl,...